Offering Ourselves and Our World into God's Care

This closing prayer originally appeared in “O God, Tender and Just: A Biblical Study on Psalm 23” published by the United Church of Christ on the first anniversary of 9-11.

The leader may wish to lead the entire prayer, to invite another participant to do so, or to invite the group to read the prayer responsively.

One: God, we offer to you what has been spoken, what has been left unspoken, and what is too enormous to speak. We offer you our honesty knowing that no human emotion or struggle is foreign to you.

One or All: God who brings life from death, hear us.

One: Restorer of life, we trust in your ability to heal. We open to you the woundedness within us, within our church, within our nation, within our world.

(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)

One or All: God who brings life from death, heal us.

One: Shepherd, through the most shadowed valley, we trust in your steadfast love. We place in your hands our fear, our confusion, our quickness to accuse, our despair over the suffering of others, our reluctance to be led by you.

(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)

One or All: God who brings life from death, guide us.

One: Bring-er of Peace, we trust in your reconciling power. We lift to you all of those things within us and within our world that thwart your purpose of shalom.

(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)

One or All: God who brings life from death, save us.

One: Love that pursues, we trust that you will not let go of your creation. We remember those who have died believing that communion with you is eternal; that nothing can stop your love.

(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)

One or All: God who brings life from death, love us.

One: We remember all the people of this world: many faiths, many nations, many cultures. We are so small, so powerful, so beautiful, so dangerous, so intelligent, so foolhardy, so compassionate, so judgmental, so inventive, so instinctive, so hopeless, and so hopeful. We need you, and we need each other. Help us to remember that we are all created in your image. Teach us the kind of love that never lets the other go. We especially pray for…

(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)

One or All: God who brings life from death, go with us.

One: And now may the Good Shepherd, who brings life from death, and who makes a way when there is no way, bless us and make us a whole people.